How To Fight and Prevent Burnout

Alicia Sedlock | @aliciability Web Unleashed 2016

– Wikipedia

“Burnout is a type of psychological stress. Occupational burnout or job burnout is characterized by exhaustion, lack of enthusiasm and motivation, feelings of ineffectiveness, and also may have the dimension of frustration or cynicism, and as a result reduced efficacy within the workplace.”

But definitions are boring.

Burnout is different for everyone.

Burnout vs. Technical Growth

Expectations of technical growth

• Personal projects, side things, coding all the time

• Assumes the person has low number of outside priorities

• Assume people will speak up when they are starting to wear thin

Realities of technical growth

• There's not infinite time - we've got lives

• It's unpaid labor

• We want technical experts who are young, because tech ageism

Why are we seeing a public increase in burnout stories?

Hypothesis A

The past few years have seen pushes to have more representation in technical teams. Unrepresented groups have to work twice as hard as their majority peers to be see as successful. So in order to "keep up", they are already pushing too hard.

Hypothesis B

We expect developers to know everything about everything.

Hypothesis C

Ageism in tech puts pressure on folks new in the industry.

Hypothesis D

Information overload makes us thing we’re behind.

Stages of burnout

Stages of burnout

• The compulsion to prove one’s self

Stages of burnout

• Working harder

Stages of burnout

• Neglecting their own needs

Stages of burnout

• Displacement of conflicts

Stages of burnout

• Revision of values

Stages of burnout

• Denial of emerging problems

Stages of burnout

• Withdrawal

Stages of burnout

• Obvious behavioral changes

Stages of burnout

• Depersonalization

Stages of burnout

• Inner emptiness

Stages of burnout

• Depression

Stages of burnout

• Burnout syndrome

So…what do we do about it?

Individual

Say no

Check in on yourself

Learn in moderation

Learn to focus on extensible knowledge

What do people want to know you for?

Don't dismiss passive learning

Organizational

Take no as an answer

Make sure your employees are set up for

success

Don’t neglect the importance on

one-on-one meetings

Want your team to learn? Give them time to learn

Understand boundaries.

We all have intellectual FOMO. Let’s be honest

about it.

If it’s not your bottom line, don’t do it.

Thanks@aliciability